New report suggests corporate climate change pledges aren’t that valuable

A trader monitors offers in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index options pit at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) on August 24, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois.  | Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Many S&P 100 companies that claim to care about climate change are either ignoring or derailing policies that could provide solutions to the crisis, a new report finds. A whopping 92 percent of companies on the S&P 100 index in 2019 have pledged to cut down their own planet-heating emissions, but just 40 percent are actually pushing lawmakers to address the climate crisis, and 21 percent have advocated against science-based climate policy over the past five years.

Corporations and lawmakers alike will need to do much more to meet the scale and urgency of the climate crisis

So while companies might sell themselves to consumers as planet-friendly, they’re not necessarily having the same conversations with decision-makers who are most...

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Apple is working on Apple Pay Later to help you buy things without paying for them yet

Image: Apple

Even if you haven’t signed up for the Apple Card, you may soon be able to put your purchases on Apple’s tab. Apple is teaming up with Goldman Sachs yet again to turn every Apple Pay transaction into a potential “buy now, pay later” opportunity, reports Bloomberg — no Apple Card needed.

You know how many online checkout counters across the web tempt you to pay with Affirm or Klarna or PayPal’s Pay In 4 instead of coughing up the full purchase price at the start, then they charge you in installments instead? It sounds like this Apple service will be a direct competitor — with the important distinction that this will be baked into hundreds of millions of Apple devices that many people are already using to tap to pay at gobs of physical...

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Instagram launches Security Checkup for people whose accounts have been hacked

Instagram’s Security Checkup | Image: Instagram

Instagram introduced a new security check today for any people whose accounts have been hacked before. People with previously compromised accounts will see a prompt when they log in asking if they want to start a security checkup. The feature walks users through security steps, including confirming other accounts that share login information, reviewing login activity, and keeping recovery contact information updated.

Instagram is also planning to add support for two-factor authentication through WhatsApp, in addition to its current options of phone numbers and authenticator apps.

Instagram says there’s been an uptick in accounts claiming to be Instagram in direct messages to get people to share their passwords. Instagram only sends...

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Google launches its Workspace tier for individuals in five countries

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google Workspace Individual, the company’s Workspace plan designed to give one-person businesses access to some premium features in the software suite, is now available in five countries (via 9to5Google).

With Workspace Individual, you’ll be able to host group meetings in Google Meet for longer than 60 minutes on a computer as well as record Meet calls and use noise cancellation. Workspace Individual also makes it easy to let others schedule time on your Google Calendar, thanks to shareable booking pages. And professional and customizable email layouts in Gmail are “coming soon” to the Workspace tier.

Workspace Individual is available if you live in Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, and the US, according to a Google support doc, and you can...

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You can’t make fun of Gogo’s airline internet anymore — because it changed the name

If you’ve ever purchased inflight Wi-Fi in the United States, there’s a good chance you’ve cursed Gogo’s name. But now, you’ll have to direct your anger at Intelsat instead: it’s the new name of the consumer chunk of the inflight internet company.

Technically, Intelsat is also the name of that chunk’s owner, a bankrupt satellite operator that purchased the inflight internet’s consumer brand in 2020, at a time when both companies were struggling with the realities of travel at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gogo furloughed 60 percent of its workforce in April 2020 and laid off 14 percent of its workers that July.

The Gogo brand will likely still live on for “business aviation,” however, as Gogo Business Aviation, LLC is now a...

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Google slashes Stadia’s revenue share to try to attract developers

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Google is revising how much of a cut it takes from Stadia games in a bid to try to attract more developers. Starting on October 1st, Google will take 15 percent of sales up to $3 million through the end of 2023.

With the change, Google seems to be trying to make its cloud gaming platform a more enticing option for developers — a proposition that has likely become much harder since the company shut down its own in-house studios. Google has also tried offering exclusive games to try to bring developers on board (which it presumably paid hefty sums to acquire), but many of those games have since been released on other platforms.

The news comes as revenue shares between developers and platform holders have come under intense scrutiny as of...

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Apple just launched an official $99 MagSafe battery pack for the iPhone 12 lineup

Apple’s new MagSafe Battery Pack. | Image: Apple

Apple has launched the MagSafe Battery Pack for its iPhone 12 lineup. One of the magnetic batteries costs $99, and you can order one right now from Apple’s website. For me, the website is showing delivery between July 22nd and July 26th.

Apple has released battery cases for iPhones in the past, but the new pack attaches to the iPhone 12 phones thanks to embedded magnets. And it will work with all four of the phones in the iPhone 12 family — the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Image: Apple

One side of the MagSafe Battery Pack.

While the iPhone 11 battery cases had a physical camera shortcut button, since this accessory is just an attachable pack, that means they don’t come with...

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Republicans call for Amazon to testify on Pentagon relationship

Photo by Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images

Republicans are questioning Amazon’s relationship with the Pentagon after newly released emails show that defense officials praised tech executives vying for a $10 billion contract during the Trump administration.

On Tuesday, _The New York Times_reported on previously unreleased emails that show Pentagon officials applauding Amazon executives while the company sought out a lucrative defense contract between 2017 and 2018. The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project, or JEDI, set out to find a tech company that would move the Defense Department’s computer networks over to the cloud.

In one instance, the_Times_reports that former Trump Defense Secretary Jim Mattis traveled to Silicon Valley to meet with executives from companies...

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Windows 11 is full of delightful detail

Image: Microsoft Design

Microsoft’s Windows 11 preview has been available for a couple of weeks now, but I’m still discovering new animations and details in this new OS that put a smile on my face. While the new Start menu and centered taskbar are the obvious changes in Windows 11 that you’ll notice straight away, it’s the small animations throughout the OS that really make it feel a lot more fresh and alive than ever before.

Microsoft has started detailing some of the design approaches it has used for Windows 11 and its attention to detail for daily micro-interactions. That includes things like a checkbox that has an animated tick to subtly let you know when you interact with it, or a settings cog that spins when you hover over it. Plenty of buttons in Windows...

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Why small design decisions can matter

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

While we usually look for major features in a device — speed or sound quality or picture sharpness — sometimes it’s the little things that can make or break your experience with that device.

I realized this recently when I bought myself a pair of Jabra Elite 75t earbuds for day-to-day use. I really liked my new earbuds. But while my previous headset came with a detachable loop that you could use to attach it to a bag or a keyring or whatever, the Jabra case has no way of attaching to anything.

Now, I wasn’t about to return the earbuds because of this, but it did cause me to growl a little. In order to get that same convenient functionality I had enjoyed with my previous earbuds, I had to buy a cheap silicone cover for the case — one...

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Instagram tests a ‘reshare’ sticker, which actually makes it harder to share posts

Instagram

Instagram doesn’t want you to spam your friends with all of the posts you come across and like. So today, it’s starting a test to make sharing to Stories slightly trickier. The company is testing a “reshare” sticker that can be placed in Stories. When selected, a “recently viewed” tab will surface and let users choose from posts they’ve seen in the last hour, saved, or posted, which they can then share in their story. They can insert IGTV, reels, and feed video content.

You can get an idea of what the test looks like in the image above. Previously, if you wanted to share a feed post to your story, you had to so manually from the post itself. This test will replace that functionality, effectively requiring you to navigate away from the...

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Apple’s weather app won’t say it’s 69 degrees

A weather forecast on iOS 15 compared to the rounded forecast on iOS 14.6 | Photo: Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

If you’re an iPhone user, the weather is always a particularly nice 70 degrees. Or 68 degrees. Any temperature but 69 degrees, actually, because it turns out that the built-in weather app on some versions of iOS — including the current version, iOS 14.6 — will refuse to display the internet’s favorite number, even if the actual temperature in a given location is, in fact, 69 degrees.

It’s not clear if this is a bug or an intentional attempt from Apple to cut down on 69-related humor. The rounding is only visible in the weather app itself: clicking through to Apple’s source data from Weather.com will show the proper temperature, as does Apple’s home screen widgets.

That said, the iOS weather app will refuse to show 69 degrees anywhere...

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Razer’s Barracuda X wireless headset plays nicely with PS5, Switch, and more

The Barracuda X borrows the sleek design of Razer’s Opus headphones. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Razer has introduced the Barracuda X, a multiplatform wireless gaming headset that takes design cues from the company’s Opus noise-canceling headphones. They’re launching today for $99.99, which is more aggressive than I expected, given that the company usually comes in at a premium price point.

The Barracuda X is a big step for Razer in that it’s finally jumping into USB-C connectivity — both in terms of how the headset charges and how it transmits audio wirelessly. Included in the box is a small USB-C wireless transmitter that’s almost identical to the one that SteelSeries has included with some of its headsets since 2019. It allows compatibility with the Nintendo Switch in portable mode, the PS5’s front-facing USB-C port, and some...

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Machine learning model from the largest US COVID-19 dataset predicts disease severity

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A centralized repository of COVID-19 health records built last year is beginning to show results, starting with a new paper published today. The repository is the largest set of COVID-19 records to date, and was built by a team of researchers and data experts last year to help make sense of COVID-19.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, looked at risk factors for severe cases of COVID-19 and traced the progression of the disease over time. The authorsbuilt machine learning models to predict which hospitalized patients would develop severe disease based on information collected on their first day in a hospital.

Using the centralized database, called the National COVID Cohort Collaborative Data Enclave, or N3C, meant...

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Microsoft’s PS5 exclusive Ghostwire: Tokyo is delayed until 2022

Tango Gameworks

_Ghostwire: Tokyo,_the paranormal action game from Japanese studio Tango Gameworks, is being delayed to early 2022. Tango Gameworks posted the news in a tweet, saying it will show more of the game in the coming months.

“We want to get the game in your hands as soon as possible so you can experience the unforgettable version of a haunted Tokyo that we’ve been hard at work building. At the same time, we’re also focused on protecting the health of everyone at Tango,” the announcement reads. “Our new release window will give us time to bring the world of Ghostwire to life as we’ve always envisioned it.” The game was previously slated for release in fall of 2021.

An update on Ghostwire: Tokyo from @TangoGameworks: pic.twitter.com/hK3TF23A8o

—...

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How to teach TikTok what you like to watch

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok is a brand-new type of social media platform. Unlike more traditional platforms like Instagram or Twitter where you manually curate your feeds by choosing to follow others — most likely, people you know — TikTok uses an algorithm to curate a highly personalized feed of videos. This algorithm can get shockingly specific as it gathers the videos it thinks you’ll like.

TikTok’s main page is named the For You page — and that really means for you. For instance, after I’d been on TikTok for a while, the algorithm figured out that I’m a grown-up emo kid (it was never a phase, Mom) who is trying to learn French, spends too much time playing The Sims 4, and is also queer. But TikTok’s algorithm didn’t get that shockingly specific by...

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How Loki built a different reality with retro hardware

Photo: Marvel Studios

Production designer Kasra Farahani explains the show’s distinct look

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Ikea and Sonos picture frame speaker review: wall of sound

The latest Symfonisk collaboration is another attempt to camouflage tech in the home

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Jeff Bezos’ launch to space clears final regulatory hurdle

The Federal Aviation Administration approved Blue Origin’s license to launch its billionaire founder Jeff Bezos and three other passengers to the edge of space next Tuesday, clearing the last regulatory hurdle for this month’s second billionaire space entrepreneur flying into space.

“New Shepard is go for launch”

Blue Origin is gearing up to launch its first crew of humans on July 20th aboard its suborbital New Shepard rocket, which launches from a remote desert site in Van Horn, Texas. The license from the FAA to fly humans, approved Monday night, is valid until August and came after a meticulous review of New Shepard’s hardware and software.

“New Shepard is go for launch,” Blue Origin said in a statement on Monday just before the...

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Ring’s end-to-end encryption is rolling out globally

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Ring’s end-to-end encryption for video streams is leaving technical preview, is now available to US users, and is currently rolling out globally, the Amazon-owned company announced on Tuesday. The opt-in feature makes it so that your video streams can only be viewed by you on an enrolled iOS or Android device, meaning that Ring can’t access that footage even if it wanted to.

The feature works with 12 Ring cameras, and you can see the full list of compatible models and follow the steps on how to set up end-to-end encryption on Ring’s website. Ring’s battery-powered video doorbells and cameras don’t support end-to-end encryption, according to that page.

Image: Ring

Ring’s end-to-end encryption settings menu.

E...

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Can Polestar design a new kind of car company?

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath wants the freedom of an auto startup with the benefits of an established player

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Firefox says its revamped SmartBlock won’t break Facebook login buttons anymore

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Firefox 90 introduces the next version of SmartBlock, the browser’s tracker blocking mechanism built into its private browsing and strict modes, which now has improvements designed to prevent buttons that let you log into websites using your Facebook account from breaking, Mozilla announced on Tuesday.

SmartBlock was first introduced with Firefox 87 in March, and if you aren’t familiar, here’s Mozilla’s description of how it works, from the company’s blog:

SmartBlock intelligently fixes up web pages that are broken by our tracking protections, without compromising user privacy.

SmartBlock does this by providing local stand-ins for blocked third-party tracking scripts. These stand-in scripts behave just enough like the original ones to...

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Pixar’s Turning Red asks ‘What if the Hulk turned into an adorable, giant red panda instead?’

Mei Lee is an ordinary 13-year-old in the first trailer for Turning Red, the next film from Pixar — unless she gets stressed out or overexcited. Then she turns into a gigantic talking red panda in a massive explosion of pink smoke, not unlike an adorable version of The Incredible Hulk.

Adding to the problem is Mei’s (Rosalie Chiang) overprotective mother, Ming (voiced by Sandra Oh), who’s seen in the trailer sneaking to watch over her at school, causing an altercation with a security guard that leads to one of Mei’s panda-sized incidents.

While the initial teaser doesn’t offer too many details on what sort of misadventures Mei will have (as both a teenager and a giant panda), it does bear the distinction of being the...

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FDA adds warning about a nerve condition to the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine awaits use in a freezer. | Photo by Matthias Bein / picture alliance via Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration added a warning to the fact sheet for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine saying that the shot may lead to an increased risk of a nerve condition called Guillain–Barré syndrome. The agency says that the benefits of the vaccine still outweigh the risk.

There have been around 100 cases of the syndrome reported among the roughly 12.6 million people who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement to The Washington Post. It’s a very rare complication, but people who have received the shot appear to be around 3 to 5 times more likely to develop Guillain–Barré syndrome than the general population.

There’s no sign that the Moderna or Pfizer...

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BuyDig’s Google Nest Hub bundles are steeply discounted on eBay

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

For many, the best smart display is the one that features whichever virtual assistant they prefer, whether it be Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant. However, despite its sluggish performance, it’s hard to argue against the Google Nest Hub if you’re already invested in Google’s ecosystem or own one of the many products under the Nest umbrella. The latest model touts a 7-inch display, reliable sleep tracking, and better sound, thanks to a 1.7-inch driver, rendering it more than just a premium photo frame that rolls through images you have stored in the cloud. And like all smart displays, it allows you to control every facet of your home, from your lighting and the TV to the temperature in your living room.

For a limited time, you can pick...

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Robinhood has figured out how to monetize financial nihilism

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

And the financial system only has itself to thank

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Sony’s latest glass speaker is a more affordable dose of bizarre design

The speaker features a “candlelight mode.” | Image: Sony

Sony is releasing another one of its glass lantern speaker hybrids, and it comes in at $100 less than its predecessor. The LSPX-S3 is a $349 wireless Bluetooth speaker that vibrates a glass tube to act as a tweeter, which Sony says allows it to send sound in all directions around it. There’s also a light inside the glass with 32 different brightness levels, allowing the speaker to act as a bedside lamp or candle-replacement on the dinner table.

As its name suggests, the LSPX-S3 is Sony’s third with this unusual form-factor, and it’s also the cheapest yet. The original LSPX-S1 sold for $799 after its launch in 2016, while the LSPX-S2 cost $449. The third-generation speaker is still expensive (at $349), but the thought of buying two of...

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We want to see your internet bill

Image: Alex Castro / The Verge

You don’t always get what you pay for in internet access. Most places only have one option, so you’re stuck picking the good plan or the bad plan from a single carrier, and if the expensive “broadband” plan turns out to be closer to dial-up speeds, there isn’t much you can do. And that’s without getting into the big swaths of the country that don’t even have a broadband option on the table.

So we’re joining with Consumer Reports to take a close look at the problem, collecting as many internet bills as we can to get a sense of which telecoms are holding up their end of the bargain — and which ones are falling short. The idea is to get a bird’s-eye view of the speeds people are actually getting, and what they’re paying for those speeds.

To...

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YouTube’s TikTok competitor YouTube Shorts is rolling out globally

Image: YouTube

YouTube’s TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, is now rolling out globally. The service launched first in India last year, before expanding to around 26 countries including the US and the UK. Now YouTube Shorts, which is still in beta, will be available “across more than 100 countries around the world where YouTube is available.”

YouTube Shorts is playing catchup to TikTok as the short-form video platform of choice, but Google’s service is pushing Shorts’ integration with the wider YouTube ecosystem as a key selling point. It recently added the ability for Shorts creators to sample audio from YouTube videos, and says it’s exploring ways to offer quick links from Shorts to YouTube videos they’ve taken samples from.

Ironically, while YouTube...

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PC market growth slows amid global chip shortages

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The PC market is showing early signs of its growth slowing down, after an impressive run of shipments throughout 2020. Both IDC and Gartner conclude that growth in the second quarter of PC shipments has slowed this year. Demand for new PCs is still above what we saw before the pandemic hit, but a mixture of softer demand and the effects of the global chip shortage mean it’s not growing as quickly.

“The market faces mixed signals as far as demand is concerned,” says Neha Mahajan, a senior research analyst at IDC. “With businesses opening back up, demand potential in the commercial segment appears promising. However, there are also early indicators of consumer demand slowing down as people shift spending priorities after nearly a year of...

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